Profiles

Everyone knows her face, but very few people can claim to know Monica Lewinsky. We know she was born in San Francisco on July 23, 1973, into an affluent family. Her father, Bernard, owned a chain of cancer therapy clinics in suburban Los Angeles.

Starr, the Republican attorney who took over the Whitewater probe in August 1994, possesses an all-star Washington resume that includes stints as solicitor general under George Bush, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge and clerk to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.

The woman who has become one of the key figures in the Lewinsky investigation grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Whippany, N.J. Going to school she was considered one of the pack, known more for her height than for gossip.

Lindsey came to Washington as a Clinton insider. The slightly built, bookish Little Rock lawyer has a corporate middle manager's taste in clothing and a recluse's allergy to the media. But his dry job title and self-effacing manner have largely obscured the pivotal role he has played in the White House for the past six years.

As a child, Plato Cacheris clung to a second-generation immigrant's dream of becoming ambassador to his father's Greek homeland. But the influence he has amassed over the past four decades as a Washington defense attorney exceeds that of most mere government appointees.

The lawyer hired by the House to help lead possible impeachment hearings against the president is a lifelong Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton twice. That's not the only surprising thing about his appointment as lead counsel by Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde.

One of President Bill Clinton's closest friends, Thomason has a lot in common with the commander-in-chief. Both men came from small towns in Arkansas and both men made names for themselves. Thomason did it in Hollywood, where he and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, created such hits as "Designing Women."